If you like this newsletter, forward it to your friends.Did you get this newsletter second-hand? Subscribe FREE.

Note: Occasional errors in this newsletter exist to bring joy to readers who find them and point them out. Please don't spoil their fun by demanding perfection from me.

Do you have a business book inside you?

Seems like everyone has an idea for a business book. But how do you get it published? In a recently updated special report, MarketingSherpa shows you how real published authors have turned their idea into reality with How to Get Your Business Book Published.

See how to write a book proposal that gets noticed. Learn the secrets of getting an agent who specializes in business books. Discover how to negotiate a contract, how much money you'll really make, and more.

If you've ever dreamed of seeing your name on the cover of a best-selling business book, this step-by-step guide is your ticket to success.

Of all the problems I run into with my clients, this is one of the most common. You have a good, or even brilliant, idea. But your boss says "no." You know you're right, so how do you sell your idea?

The answer is How to Sell Good Marketing to Your CEO. This special report introduces you to the 8 different types of CEO and how to pitch your ideas to each. It's an essential tool for corporate advancement and marketing success in the real world.

Response Booster: Don't change your strategy without proof

You should be constantly testing new ideas in your marketing
programs. However, once you find something that works, don't
change your approach until you have conclusive, mathematical proof
that a new strategy works better.

Many successful strategies are
changed by new managers or creative personnel who wish to make their
mark and "own" the campaign in use. Or, marketing people just
get bored and want something new. While it's often a good idea to
polish or update your ads from time to time, your basic strategy
should not change until it stops working or you discover something
better.

Make all decisions based solely on the mathematics of
response and net profit.

29, 200 days

Why do you work so hard? That seems like a silly question, but it's worth asking.

For the most part, people work hard to earn money so they can have a better life. But invariably, the harder you work, the less time you have for a life. I mean, if you're putting in 12 or 16 hour days, when exactly do you get to the "fun" part of being successful?

It's a catch-22 for many people. If you don't work hard, you're miserable because you don't have the money to do all the things you want. If you do work hard, you're miserable because you don't have the time to do all the things you want. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground these days.

I've solved this dilemma for the most part by escaping the rat race and running my own business by my own rules. But it wasn't always that way.

Years ago, when I was just starting out, I worked for a "book packager." That means I researched, wrote, and edited school textbooks, primarily in science and social studies.

The pay was lousy, less than $14 an hour. The hours were insane. I often worked for 48 hours straight with no sleep to meet deadlines. I researched, wrote, and/or edited 23 textbooks in 18 months. Was I getting ahead? Sure. The more I worked, the more I earned and I thought it would take me places if I kept it up.

But what really happened was that I got burned out. I started making mistakes. And I was utterly miserable.

Soon, I struck a deal with a local ad agency to write a couple direct mail packages for considerably more money than I was earning writing textbooks, so I shifted my focus to commercial copywriting, thinking I'd be much happier because instead of earning about $14 an hour, I'd be earning about $50 an hour, which at that time was astonishing to me.

But the same thing happened. I got burned out because the client made so many demands on me, as did other clients I acquired over the next few years, that I was right back to where I was before. Earning more money, but no time to enjoy it.

It wasn't long until I was earning up to $500 an hour, which should be enough to make anyone happy, but nothing changed ... until I realized what was going on and decided to stop killing myself.

Instead of a "live to work" guy, I've become a "work to live" guy. I have come to learn that freedom and control are part of the benefit package of running your own business. I've been offered jobs with hefty six-figure salaries and turned them down. I'd tell them, "Look, I earn plenty of money and I can do what I want when I want. I'm happy. If you can't offer me that, what's the point?"

Today, I tell clients that I'll give them my best effort, but I won't try to meet impossible deadlines working nights, weekends, or holidays. For the most part, I end my day at 5 p.m. so I have time to do things I enjoy, like working in my garden, cycling, watching movies, reading, or whatever.

And you know what? Most clients are fine with that. I feel refreshed and generally can work faster and with a clear head. I earn good money. I live in a nice house. I do good work. I don't have gray hair. No heart attacks. No strokes. No one has a perfect life, of course, but I think this is as good as it gets.

Here's the takeaway: Most of us have roughly 29,200 days on this Earth. If you can find the right balance between working and living, I honestly think more of those days will be good ones. And since I'm earning more and feel pretty energetic and happy most of the time, I think it tends to work out financially as well. And even if I could earn more, I don't care. It's not ALL about money.

In a way, I had it easy because freelancing was a step up for me. But most people are in a job they hate and can't figure out how to make the transition. A friend of mine did figure it out and took the time to put it all in a book that I highly recommend. It's simple and step-by-step. It's called Stop Wishing and Start Earning by Ed Gandia.

29,200 days, give or take. That's what you have. Once they're gone, they're gone. My advice? Don't waste a single day doing something you don't enjoy or earning less than you deserve.

How to Reduce Pesky Web Site Traffic

I wrote this article a few years ago when people were still figuring out the Web, so some of it is a little out-of-date. But surprisingly, you still find people doing dumb stuff like this. So it's worth a read.

Attend a conference on e-commerce, and
the guru du jour will preach the gospel of usability, navigation and
interface design, customer experience, and so on. The promise is that
the more user-friendly your site, the more repeat traffic you'll
generate.

Traffic schmaffic. Don't those Web
gurus get it? Most businesses don't want traffic. They just put up
a Web site because everyone else puts up a Web site. And more
visitors mean more headaches.

I feel your pain. So I'm going to
cut through all the baloney and give you some advice you can really
use. Just try one or more of these simple tips and I guarantee you'll
drive people away from your Web site and make sure they never, ever
come back:

Keep out the riffraff with
strict viewing requirements. Simply ask visitors to use a
particular browser, adjust their monitors to specific settings, and
download the latest plug-ins. Only a handful of people will ever go
to all that trouble.

Flash and splash them without
mercy. There's nothing like a pretentious front page to tell
people, "We're better than you are. Na na na na na!" But the
real beauty of Flash programming and fancy splash pages is that they
usually take a long time to load. And statistics show that after ten
seconds of waiting, half of your visitors will go elsewhere.

Pound them into submission with
endless pop-ups. Whack 'em with a pop-up the moment they land
on your home page. Smack 'em with a pop-up when they click on a
link. Then thwack 'em with a whole series of pop-ups when they
leave. And make sure all your pop-ups promote other sites. That'll
suck away traffic like crazy. But if ordinary pop-ups are too wimpy
for you ...

Trap them in a buttonless
browser jail. All it takes is a little coding and your pop-up
fills the screen and removes all browser controls. The only way out
is to order your product or shut down the computer. It will enrage
most people and they'll never bother you again. But, hey, you may
actually sell something. Gotta pay the rent every now and then.

Regale them with the Welsh
National Anthem. A little music file, a little scripting, and you
have yourself a really annoying musical page. But who says YOU can't
enjoy it? Indulge your personal taste. If an anthem is too starched
shirt for you, try The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" or ABBA's
"Dancing Queen." Music doubles your chances of reducing traffic
because 1) it makes people think you're an amateur, and 2) it
drives people nuts, especially when there's no off button.

Make them scroll through 26
miles, 385 yards of copy. That's the official distance of a
marathon. And if it's good enough for a foot race, it's good
enough for the Web. I mean, most people will poop out in the first
mile or so. And just think how simple your design job will be with
all your copy on one long, endlessly scrolling page.

Serve up mystery meat
navigation. It's the cure for those "links that tell you
exactly what you'll get and where you'll go if you click on
them" blues. All you do is create beautiful but mysterious
graphical images for links. No text. Or you require your visitors to
mouse over secret areas on the screen before the navigation elements
reveal themselves. It's sort of like hide and seek. The only
people who will want to play are your tech-savvy colleagues.
Everyone else will get mad and go home. Bye-bye!

Spawn new browser windows with
every click. This one's really fun because most people are
pretty fuzzy about all those browser controls. So when you create a
new window, you'll take away the one feature they know how to use:
the back button. It will be grayed out in the new window so they
won't be able to use it. He he he. Oh, it's a laugh riot!

Dazzle them with dozens of
blinking banner ads. Just remember that every new banner must be
bigger, brighter, and flashier than the one before. Otherwise your
site may stop looking like a neon nightmare, people will start
buying things from those ads, and then you'll have to be in
business for real ... and who wants that?

Ever wanted your own radio show? It's easier than you think!

It sounds crazy, because only famous people can be on the radio, right? Actually, there are zillions of talk shows out there hosted by ordinary people like you. I know because a friend of mine started his own talk show a couple months ago on a Cleveland AM station with no experience. How?

This is a fantastic (and cheap) way to boost newsletter subscribers, get famous fast, sell your book, publicize your services, or drive traffic to your Web site. The author uses radio to help drive over 5 million visitors to his site every month.